Where is the place for politics in this brave new world, when leaving the Net becomes as unthinkable as giving up breathing? … As the warp and the woof draw ever tighter, the feelings of claustrophobia and manipulation that result may indeed trigger a new politics in the midst of digital culture: the networked equivalent of the Branch Davidians, where the ultimate political gesture is one of withdrawal and self-marginalization.
Predictor: Kinney, Jay
Prediction, in context:For a 1995 article for Wired magazine, Jay Kinney, publisher and editor of Gnosis: A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions, writes: ”Where is the place for politics in this brave new world, when leaving the Net becomes as unthinkable as giving up breathing? The whole thrust of the major-player, video-on-demand, totally Wired, multimedia, content-provider blitzkrieg is an entertainment-saturated environment that leaves little time or space for debate and studied thought about ‘issues.’ The increasingly complex decisions required by a global civilization will likely be left to the policy wonks, CEOs, and the institutional minions who keep the whole ball rolling anyway. Choices like ‘more’ or ‘less’ government could become obsolete if the technocratic, quasi-parental, service-marked colossus reduces your decision-making capacity to the level of ‘Would you like milk or sugar with your Prozac?’ As the warp and the woof draw ever tighter, the feelings of claustrophobia and manipulation that result may indeed trigger a new politics in the midst of digital culture: the networked equivalent of the Branch Davidians, where the ultimate political gesture is one of withdrawal and self-marginalization.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: Democracy
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: ‘Anarcho-Emergentist-Republicans’: Is There a New Politics Emerging in the Net/Cyberspace/Digital Culture?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.09/netpolitics_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney